Our “advising community” model includes several kinds of advisers ready to help out with everything from planning your courses to managing periods of stress.

Your residential college Dean and Assistant Dean for Studies oversee your academic progress during all four years here. Don’t hesitate to talk to them about your intellectual passions and coursework, academic opportunities, and helpful resources to enrich your academic experience.

Your residential college Assistant Dean for Studies or the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science will also assign you a faculty adviser. Students are matched as much as possible with faculty who share their interests, yet faculty advisers are also good generalists who have a feel for balancing workloads, exploring new areas, fulfilling requirements, and helping you think broadly about how to make the most of your Princeton experience. Your faculty adviser will be a sounding board for your ideas and plans throughout your first two years at Princeton, starting with a one-on-one meeting this August to discuss your fall courses. 

If you want to talk with someone who has been in your shoes, turn to your Peer Academic Adviser (PAA). The PAAs are juniors and seniors affiliated with your residential college, who will gladly share their perspectives on majors and other academic programs, balancing your courseload and extracurriculars, taking advantage of academic resources like the McGraw Center and the Writing Center, and studying abroad. Your Residential College Adviser (RCA) can also provide you with the perspective of an experienced student.

You’ll begin to think through your fall course choices when you complete ClassPath, an online academic advising course, this summer. ClassPath culminates with a video call from your Peer Academic Adviser (PAA), who will answer your questions and offer peer advice on the academic paths you’re considering. 

In early August, your faculty adviser will reach out to you to schedule a one-on-one Zoom appointment to discuss your academic interests and fall course choices. Your adviser, who will have your high school record and test scores to help with placement, will make sure you develop a plan you feel excited about.

Then you’ll head to campus, where you’ll participate in a range of Orientation events designed to support your transition to Princeton’s campus community. During Orientation, you’ll attend a “College Academic Meeting” led by your residential college staff, at which time you’ll have the opportunity ask lingering questions about your fall course choices. You’ll also have the chance to explore departments and curricular options during our Academic Expo.

There are things you can do to prepare yourself well ahead of time: Think about your interests, goals, and study habits. Review Course Offerings (our online course catalog) and look at the Undergraduate Announcement for information about prerequisites and majors. If you’re considering a career in the health professions, visit the Health Professions Advising website for information on academic requirements.

Students often plan to take a program similar to the one they had in high school – math, language, English, science – whether they’re interested in those subjects or not. Why limit yourself that way? We recommend considering courses in areas that are new to you and that you did not have the opportunity to study before. Preparation and an open mind will help you make the most of conversations during orientation and meeting with your faculty adviser.

AP credit can be used for placement into higher level courses in certain subjects. (See the AP table for details.) In other words, you can avoid having to repeat what you have already learned and can advance to new material. You can also use AP credit to satisfy the A.B. language requirement, B.S.E. requirements in physics, chemistry, and math, and some A.B. concentration prerequisites.

AP credit cannot be used to fulfill the writing or distribution requirements and it does not reduce the number of courses required for graduation (31 for the A.B. degree, 36 for the B.S.E.) unless a student has sufficient AP credit and is granted advanced standing.

Our primary concern is that students be placed appropriately for success in our sequenced courses, and so some language and science departments will require incoming students to take a Princeton test to confirm course placement and credit. Details are available on the AP Table website. 

Unless you were admitted through Princeton’s transfer program, Princeton does not award credit for college courses taken before you matriculated. After you enter Princeton, you can earn credit for pre-approved courses taken at other institutions over the summer or during a leave of absence – A.B. students can count up to three, B.S.E. students up to four. Such courses can be counted towards the total course credits you need for your degree or used for partial fulfillment of certain distribution areas. We also strongly encourage students to study abroad at other universities during the academic year!

We use a number of tests to gauge your correct placement in various subjects. When possible, we use your AP, IB, A-level, or even SAT scores to make placement recommendations. However, we also have our own placement tests in languages taught at Princeton, computer science, physics, and chemistry. Some tests are administered over the summer, and others closer to the start of classes.

To help with math course selection, rather than taking a placement test, students will be contacted about attending a Math Information Workshop session based on their plans for the fall semester and after meeting with their academic advisor in the late summer.

Who must take a language placement test?

♦ You must take the language placement test if you are an A.B. or B.S.E. student planning to continue taking language classes in a language you have already studied in high school. In order to ensure that everyone in the class is at the appropriate level and that everyone will have a productive learning experience, students are not allowed to place themselves into 100-level language classes. 

If you would like to study a new language at Princeton, you don’t need to take the language placement test; you may simply register for the first course in the language sequence (normally 101).

If you wish to place out of the language requirement in a language that isn’t tested at Princeton, we may be able to arrange for you to take a placement test elsewhere. Talk to your residential college Assistant Dean for Studies about this option.

We also recommend that you take the language test if one of the following circumstances apply:

♦ You are an A.B. student who would like to place out of a language or receive advanced placement credit.

♦ You are a B.S.E. student who would like to receive advanced placement credit OR it’s conceivable that you might switch to the A.B. program and would like to demonstrate that you can place out of the A.B. language requirement.

Pleaser refer to this document for more information on the University’s Language Requirement.

ClassPATH is an online academic advising course that will prepare you for fall course selection and your first meeting with your faculty adviser in August. ClassPath is interactive and fun – there are no right answers and nothing is graded! You’ll participate in discussions with members of your advising group (zee group), connect with your Peer Academic Adviser (PAA), and explore Princeton’s rich and diverse curriculum.

Princeton’s general education requirements play a critical role in our liberal arts education approach, which aims to sharpen your ability to think broadly and freely. It’s a unique opportunity, coupled with the responsibility to challenge yourself in ways that will expand your thinking, strengthen your analytical and communication skills, and deepen your empathy for the world around you. General education provides a foundation for you to learn and grow as a human being, citizen, professional, and community member, as well as in many other aspects of your life.

General education requirements consist of the following:

Writing Seminar: The skills you gain in “Writing Sem” during your first year—how to pose a strong question and craft a well-informed original argument, how to work within and across disciplines, how to tap into the vast resources of Princeton’s libraries and collaborate with your peers—will be indispensable for your academic and non-academic endeavors, at Princeton and beyond. 

Language Requirement: Proficiency in a new language enables you not only to communicate with other people, but also to acquire new ideas and information and develop cross-cultural understanding. Thus, students in the A.B. program are required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. B.S.E. students do not have to complete the language requirement, but many choose to do so. There are a number of ways to fulfill this requirement, including studying a language at Princeton. 

Distribution Requirements: Distribution requirements allow you to explore topics that are unfamiliar and sound interesting, and ensure that your academic studies do not become too focused too early. Distribution requirements are easily fulfilled within the four years of your overall degree program. An introductory course to a possible major, an arts course offered through the Lewis Center for the Arts, and/or a Freshman Seminar are all great ways to satisfy some of the distribution requirements during the first year and, possibly, discover a new intellectual passion.

Princeton A.B. and the B.S.E. degrees are both undergraduate degrees in the tradition of a liberal arts education, which means acquiring breadth across many fields and depth in one. Both degrees require students to complete eight semesters of study, to take a writing seminar, and to fulfill general education requirements across several areas. The A.B. and the B.S.E. degree also have significant independent work components. All A.B. students write a senior thesis, and most B.S.E. students do a thesis or equivalent design project. B.S.E. students have to take at least seven humanities and social science courses (most take more), while over 60% of the students in the A.B. program take at least one course offered by a department or program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. 

There are, of course, differences between the two degrees. The B.S.E. program requires you to be more comfortable with science and math. Moreover, the A.B. degree requires 31 courses and the B.S.E. requires 36. These differences, however, are less than they appear at first glance. For instance, the A.B. degree requires four semesters of independent work that are not tallied as part of the 31 credits needed for graduation. In the B.S.E. program, all independent work counts among the 36 courses. Another difference is that B.S.E. students declare their major at the end of the first year, while A.B. students do this in the spring of sophomore year. Yet, in many A.B. majors you need to take foundational courses in sophomore year as well.

Every year some students choose to switch from one degree program to the other. Permission is granted for such changes on a case-by-case basis. Students switching to the B.S.E. program must plan to meet the basic first-year B.S.E. requirements, especially in physics and math. Students switching to the A.B. program must plan for the A.B. language requirement. Entering students will be given an opportunity to request a degree change over the summer. (See the timeline for the deadline.) After the school year begins, a student considering a degree candidacy change should consult first with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science (258-4554, Room C-209, or [email protected]), and then with their residential college dean or assistant dean for studies.

Read more here: “Princeton Degrees Explained”

Princeton’s courses vary from small seminars (e.g. Freshman Seminars and Writing Seminars, usually limited to 12-15 students), to medium-sized lecture courses with a required weekly discussion session (a “precept”), to large lecture courses (sometimes up to 200-300 students), again with a precept. The standard class meeting time will thus be 3-4 hours per week, but some natural science or engineering courses also have an additional weekly lab session (normally 3 hrs.), on top of the weekly lectures and precept.

Courses also vary in the types of assignments they require. Many STEM courses assign weekly problem-sets (aka “p-sets”), whereas humanities courses often focus on readings and papers. At the end of the semester, some courses require a term paper, and some have a final exam, a final “project”, or possibly a “take-home exam”. It can be a good idea to have a mixture of different types of assignments in a given semester, especially at the end of the semester when all papers are due at the end of Reading Period – also called “Dean’s Date” – and all finals take place in the week and a half following Reading Period.

Princeton’s courses will likely challenge you by new expectations: courses will move at a rapid pace; you will be expected to solve problems in math and science at a higher conceptual level; you will read many unfamiliar texts that require new approaches. Moreover, you will be expected to learn the particular conventions and assumptions of multiple disciplines, often in your first semester at Princeton. It’s perfectly normal to feel that the study strategies that got you here are no longer as effective, but Princeton has many academic support resources to help you adapt and grow.

Planning out your academic year with the rhythm of the semester in mind will help immeasurably with your transition to Princeton. Here’s a sketch of how both the fall and spring semesters work:

Following your initial course selection (during Orientation for first-year students in the fall, and at the end of the preceding term for all future semesters), the first two weeks of the term are the free drop/add period during which students can drop and add courses for free on TigerHub, with the advice and approval of their faculty adviser. Don’t be afraid to explore, but try not to wait until the add/drop deadline to add new courses - it might be hard to catch up on missed work! After the free drop/add period, there is a fee to drop courses. 

After the shopping period, the next significant academic event is midterm week, the sixth week of the semester. Not all classes schedule midterm papers or exams during this week, but the majority do. 

Midterms are followed by a week-long mid-semester recess, and upon returning to classes students have a three week window to decide about dropping a class or selecting the P/D/F grade option (for classes that allow the P/D/F option, as listed in the course descriptions in Course Offerings). By the end of the ninth week, classes are set in stone – grade options are final, and you can no longer drop a class.

The end of classes is followed by Reading Period, a window to prepare for exams and complete final papers, projects and exercises. The latest possible deadline for any written work is Dean’s Date, the final day of reading period. A final exam period follows Dean’s Date, and the semester (at last!) draws to a close.

You can see the academic calendars on the Registrar’s website. Also, look for reminders from your Residential College Dean and Assistant Dean to help you stay on top of your academic life.

For many students, “academic support” or “extra help” in high school meant working with a tutor to “fix” something, or to make up for a gap in understanding. At Princeton, “academic support” is more like “academic coaching”: the most successful Princeton students take advantage of opportunities outside of a classroom to enhance their performance. Explore the kinds of resources available to you from the very beginning to become an even better learner. Our academic support resources are available to all Princeton students and do not require additional fees. 

When you have course-related questions, the first person to turn to is the instructor, either in the form of your preceptor or the faculty member in charge of the course. They will be pleased that you asked for clarification of a concept or for insight into problems on tests and papers. Additional resources include the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, which offers group and individual peer tutoring in introductory chemistry, economics, mathematics, physics, and statistics, one-on-one consultations with trained specialists to help you understand your own study habits, and much more. The Writing Center offers student writers free one-on-one conferences with experienced fellow writers trained to consult on writing projects in any discipline. 

Princeton University Library offers many learning and research resources, including a Personal Librarian Program, pairing a librarian with each student. You'll receive an introductory email from your Personal Librarian at the start of the semester.

You can also find wonderful academic resources within your on-campus communities, including The Scholars Institute Fellows Program (SIFP) for first-generation and/or low-income students, the Princeton University Mentoring Program, and Associate Dean of the College James (Alec) Dun for student-athletes. 

Your residential college dean or assistant dean for studies, your Peer Academic Advisers, and your RCAs will be happy to help you to identify what kinds of support will meet your needs. Keep in mind that it’s normal to feel challenged by many aspects of your academic experience, and we are here to help every step of the way!

As you embark on your college career, you may have no idea what you want to major in or you can’t decide between several possibilities, or perhaps you may feel you know exactly what you’d like to study. The first thing to bear in mind is that you won’t choose your major for another year or two; in the meantime, take time to explore! A.B. students normally declare a major at the end of sophomore year, B.S.E students normally declare a major at the end of their first year.

To help you choose your major, consider where your interests lie, how you hope to make a difference in the world, and where you would find the best intellectual community of faculty and fellow students. Many of you may also be thinking ahead to potential career paths, but you will build valuable knowledge and skills in every major, and any major can lead in a variety of interesting directions. (See the Center for Career Development Alumni & Student Stories for a few examples from recent graduates.) Minors and certificates are also a rewarding way to complement your major, pursue other passions, and develop other skills. 

There are many resources at your disposal to help you explore majors, including your faculty adviser, peer advisers, B.S.E. “interactors,” faculty departmental Directors of Undergraduate Studies, your residential college dean and assistant dean, and, to the extent that your career plans may influence your choice of major, the Center for Career Development and the Office of Health Professions Advising. In addition, throughout the year, there will be numerous events that will give you an opportunity to become acquainted with each major.

Above all, remember that your major, while important, is only one component of your academic life. It will be complemented by other classwork, your independent research, and your extracurricular experiences at Princeton.

Don’t be surprised if sometimes your interests take you outside of the formal classroom setting. Explore our amazing study abroad programs, which include not only academic year opportunities but summer language learning programs and summer Global Seminars. There are also lots of ways to learn outside the classroom; look into connecting your academic work with service through Service Focus, Learning and Education through Service (LENS), and the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES), and explore the possibilities that await you in the Office of Undergraduate Research. You’ll also want to get to know your professors and take advantage of leadership opportunities that will prepare you for fellowships, both as an undergraduate and post-Princeton.

The skills and knowledge you acquire in any course at Princeton will contribute to your success in a variety of different pathways after graduation. Your plans may also change as you are exposed to new classes and experiences at Princeton. So, follow your interests and they will take you where you want to go. For certain paths, however, there are specific courses you need to take. This is particularly true for engineering and health professions, for instance. You can learn more about preparing for health professions by going to Getting Started at Princeton for Pre-health First-Years. Engineering offers a variety of different fields, each with their own specific coursework. Note, however, that engineering majors don’t have to lead to engineering jobs, even though you probably have to major in an engineering field to become an engineer. The Center for Career Development can help you think about pathways and the wide variety of ways they can be connected to your academics and experiences outside the classroom. 

The first words of Princeton’s policy guide, Rights, Rules, Responsibilities, underscore our academic mission, stating that “[t]he central purposes of a university are the pursuit of truth, the discovery of new knowledge through scholarship and research, the teaching and general development of students, and the transmission of knowledge and learning to society at large.” The guide’s section on Academic Integrity continues: “The ability of the University to achieve its purposes depends upon the quality and integrity of the academic work that its faculty, staff, and students perform. Academic freedom can flourish only in a community of scholars which recognizes that intellectual integrity, with its accompanying rights and responsibilities, lies at the heart of its mission” (RRR 1.1.2 Academic Integrity). 

We expect all members of our academic community to uphold our standards of academic integrity and trust. Even before you arrive at Princeton, you will receive a copy of Rights, Rules, Responsibilities and the Honor Code to sign. 

As part of your ClassPath academic advising course, you’ll complete an online module on academic integrity and its importance as a value at Princeton. During Orientation, you will participate in a two-hour workshop on academic integrity. Your first-year writing seminar will then teach you the rules of citation in more detail. So, you will have all the knowledge to live up to Princeton’s highest purpose as an educational institution.